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Real Estate: GERALD S. DIVARIS
Divaris believes that real estate lies at the core of a person’s needs. “The transformation of real estate into desirable places in which to live, work and play transforms a ‘need’ into a ‘want,’” he adds. “The ability to use my work to enable this transformation is exciting and rewarding.” Divaris earned a mas[...]
Agriculture: MATTHEW RYAN
After being named CEO of Shenandoah Growers Inc. in June 2021, Ryan — formerly chief marketing and strategy officer for Starbucks Corp. and head of brand and franchise management for The Walt Disney Co. — ushered in a rebrand: Soli Organic Inc. “We simplified our name to tell people who and what we are,” Ryan […]
Education: ANNE M. KRESS
As Northern Virginia Community College’s president, Kress is also the boss of first lady Jill Biden, who teaches English at NOVA’s Alexandria campus. Although Biden now has a Secret Service detail, she has taught at NOVA since 2009. Kress is a relative newcomer to the state’s largest community college, having arrived in Ja[...]
Federal Contractors/Technology: BRIAN HUSEMAN
Huseman’s first job was at a Walmart in his Oklahoma hometown. “It’s where I first learned the importance of a customer service mindset,” he says. A former U.S. attorney and Federal Trade Commission general counsel, Huseman is passionate about the responsibility Amazon has “to be a good employer and neighbor.” That i[...]
Federal Contractors/Technology: JASON PROVIDAKES
Mitre sprang into action during the pandemic. The not-for-profit organization, which manages federally funded research and development centers, partnered with the Mayo Clinic to create infrastructure to collect, analyze and share pandemic data among 1,000 entities to anticipate disease spread and develop real-time guidance and s[...]
Federal Contractors/Technology: ANTHONY ‘TONY’ SABATINO
Formerly known as Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services Inc., the private security and investigation services firm rebranded in January 2021 as Paragon Systems Inc., which had been a subsidiary of the company founded in 2013. Sabatino was named CEO of Securitas just a year earlier, though he is a veteran of the company, hav[...]
Hospitality/Tourism: CHRISTOPHER J. NASSETTA
Hilton dropped off the elite Fortune 500 list in 2021 amid a massive revenue drop brought on by the pandemic, but it’s homing in on a return, rising from No. 596 to No. 538 on this year’s Fortune 1000 list. Hilton has about 7,000 hotel properties in 122 countries and territories. It opened 76 new […]
Nonprofits/Philanthropy: M. SANJAYAN
Too often, Sanjayan says, climate change is discussed as a far-off, abstract threat punctuated by thresholds, targets and tipping points. That’s not enough to spark collective action, Conservation International’s CEO says, but there is something that can move the needle: “Storytelling — with characters, scenes, conflicts[...]
Retail/Wholesale: KEVIN MURPHY
Murphy got his start in the plumbing industry as a young man working summers at his father’s business, Columbus, Ohio-based Midwest Pipe and Supply. In 1999, Ferguson Enterprises Inc. — the Newport News-based subsidiary of U.K.-based plumbing and heating products distributor Ferguson plc — bought the Murphy family’s 22[...]
Professional Services: ALISON ROGISH
In 2021, Rogish became the first woman to lead Deloitte’s Central Virginia market. She succeeded Dan Hudgens, who transitioned to serve clients on the West Coast. The Big Four accounting firm’s Central Virginia practice, which includes Richmond and Hampton Roads, has about 300 employees providing audit and assurance tax, con[...]
Federal Contracting/Technology: JIM BRINKER
Intel lobbied for legislation to restore U.S. manufacturing of semiconductor chips following a global shortage during the pandemic. As leader of the technology company’s federal business unit, which it created in 2011, Brinker oversees strategy, business development, contracts and finance for its federal contracting activity. [...]
Living Legends: WHITTINGTON W. ‘WHITT’ CLEMENT
With first-class people skills, Clement might have become Virginia’s governor if he hadn’t failed to win the Democratic nomination for attorney general in 2001 — or so mused a Virginian-Pilot editorial writer last summer. Instead, Clement, a well-known attorney, is currently putting those skills to work as the University o[...]
